Steve MacDonald

Steve is a long-time New Hampshire resident, an award-winning blogger, and a member of the Board of Directors of The 603 Alliance and the National Heritage Center for Constitutional Studies. He is the owner of Grok Media LLC and the Managing Editor, Executive Editor, assistant editor, Editor, content curator, and more (yes, there's more) at GraniteGrok.com. Steve is also a former board member of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, the Republican Volunteer Coalition, and has worked for or with many state and local campaigns and grassroots groups, and is a past contributor to the Franklin Center for Public Policy.

Food For Thought

Over here, you’ll find Senator Shaheen crowing about how great the new food safety bill is, and how she, Senator Jeanne Shaheen, helped pass it. (It’s crap like all the other dem bills but that’s not why she’s an ass.)
She is an ass because (and if it makes you feel better Judd Gregg is an ass for being both a co-sponsor and a yeah vote) there are provisions in this Senate bill (S510) that….raise taxes.

Meet Professor “Screw You”

On the front page of this mornings Union Leader reporter Clyntnon Mamuo covers negotiations between the University of New Hampshire, and some 630 professors over their new contract.  As is often the case with such things, there is some disparity between what the University feels is economically feasible and what the white-tower and it’s union representatives actually want.

Keep in mind that the article quotes inflation at around 0.5%, and we know that over the past few years the government method of calculating inflation overall have shown it almost flat.  Using these figures along with what we know about pension issues and what Obamacare is doing to the cost of health insurance ‘the smartest people in the state’…

"…proposed a 12.5 percent pay increase, one percent of which would be merit-based, and no increase in health insurance premiums."

So the education establishment liberals in the university system think like the establishment progressives who ran up the state budget in the past four years. Screw the economy we deserve a huge raise. (The progressive political class gets their reward through a larger public sector union, which gives them money to try and keep them in office so they can rinse, lather and repeat.) And it is no surprise that they, democrats and educators, are fiscally (and ideologically) co-dependent.

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Stieg Larsson Is A Dead Marxist

IImage Credit: Shelfari had occasion to spend an above average amount of time in the "reading room" over the weekend.  No need to go into specifics but perhaps the words Whole Bowel Cleanse, give you some idea of what I mean.

While so positioned, I managed to cram all 590 pages of Stieg Larsson’s book ‘The girl with the dragon tattoo‘ into my reading diet and let me say this; if you can get past the first 190 pages the next 400 are worth the time.  I enjoyed the bulk of the book immensely, despite the fact that I was trapped in "the reading room" and that it was written by a now dead Marxist. 

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Fun With Paul And Carol

Anyone know if Paul ‘Sugar Daddy’ Hodes and Carol Seiu-Porter have decided to raise taxes yet?  That’s what that is you know?  If they allow any existing cuts to expire, they are raising taxes. Now I realize our liberal friends don’t see it that way.   They look at it like this.  Since 2003/2005 the … Read more

Landmark Ruling?

It is never a good idea to expect any kind of consistency in the application of rulings by your State Supreme Court but in this case they did and I have to wonder what the broader applications could be? 

The New Hampshire State Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit in which a golfer sued a golf course because he got hit in the eye by his own shot (off a yard marker).

Dan Tuohy, correspondent for the Union Leader reports today that Paul F. Sanchez does not have a case against Candia Woods Golf Course, which is mundane until you read the language used by the court to explain its dismissal.

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Carol Soros-Porter 2.0 [Updated]

Carol's Sugar Daddy?Nothing says banking, special interests, or rich SOB’s like George Soros.  So as you contemplate all the things you have to be thankful for, one of which has to include the defeat of Carol Shea-Porter just a few weeks ago, ask yourself why the guy who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars and fronted dozens of groups, for the sole purpose of destroying America from within, has a family interest in the political fortunes of the soon to be former congresswoman from CD-01?

[updated] Seems there is more Soros support for Carol, call it institutional support, going all the way back to 2007.  Every time we turn around there is another member of the Soros Clan turning up as a donor to our de-throned congressperson.  SO many, in fact, I’ve had to push them to the jump to fit them all.

Updated list on the jump.

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A Message From Barack

I just got this email from the President. (me an anyone else on that email list) Steve — When Michelle and I sit down with our family to give thanks today, I want you to know that we’ll be especially grateful for folks like you. Everything we have been able to accomplish in the last … Read more

A Real Separation Of Powers

Separation of powers is something of a throw-away phrase for the Socialist-Democrat-Progressives.  They hand it out like a comfort object to the public, a sort of well-worn teddy bear for the masses.  It is meant to remind you that no matter what they do (or did) that bear will be there to help you feel better.

So what if it is a highly regulated bear, made by dues paying  union workers, stuffed with warning labels, wearing a little red hat with a hammer and sickle on it, and maybe even an Obama T-shirt for good measure.

Separation of powers is also this idea where the three branches are divided to ensure that the tyrannical might of the federal government is divided to protect the rights of the people.  This used to work, right up until someone wrote the seventeenth amendment, and then politicized the national court system.  At that point we no longer had separation of powers just the separation of parties, except where the two parties agree; in which case we are looking at an Oligarchy by direct democracy, which is one of the shortest paths by which little Red Totalitarian-Riding hood arrives at Comrade Grandma’s house.

Why do you think both parties appear to be moving to opposite extreme’s?  Why are states rebelling against the federal government?  Because the system was broken on purpose, by progressives, who need direct democracy so that fear and intimidation can drive the polity to allow top down federal rule as the only viable solution.

So our central planning friends view separation of powers to mean separating you from their power, so they can go about the business of managing your lives, and no one has worked harder or longer to excise the power from the people than democrats, though the ruling class Neo-Cons have done plenty to help fill the picnic basket for grandma.

But there is a solution to this problem, one that can relieve the pressure of special interests, the boys club mentality, and the lack of responsiveness by the federal legislature to the state and the people.

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DCCC Thanksgiving Cheat Sheet

The Morons at the DCCC have done the nation a service this Thanskgiving.  They have sent out an email to arm the tin-foil hat army with a ‘cheat sheet’ in the event that they find themselves in this unfortunate situation.

You’re settling in at the table on Thursday and in between shouts of "please pass the mashed potatoes," one of your relatives starts repeating one of Sarah Palin‘s lies, or some ludicrous accusation about President Obama that he heard at a tea party rally or on Rush Limbaugh‘s radio show.

There’s only one problem. The cheat sheet does not equip the Reynolds wrap wearing acolytes of liberalism with anything new.  What it amounts to is things they can yell instead of engaging in debate.  But the DCCC is not to be discouraged.

That’s why we’re proud to bring back the DCCC’s Thanksgiving Cheat Sheet. The Cheat Sheet will arm you with the real facts so you can answer back with the truth as soon as your Republican relatives start sounding like Sarah Palin.

I think this is the same card they sent out to the House reps to run on for reelection.  It really is just crap to be shouted over the Yams and stuffing, a list of so-called democrat accomplishments–only they left one out.  "Having policies so unpopular with the voters that they lost 63 House seats."

It’s about the only good thing to come out of that damn party and they left it off the list.

That’s OK. You know what to do if you encounter the cheat sheet.  Just ask polite questions.  They have no idea how to answer them.  They don’t know anything that is not on the cheat sheet.

And my suggestion for democrats this Thanksgiving?  This list is a real turkey. Pretend to be an independent.

The Cheat sheet is on the jump.  Don’t drink anything while you read it or it’s coming out your nose and all over your computer.  You have been warned.

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Elephant Innards

Any migration of Republicans away from a vote for “Speaker O’Brien” might say more about Gene Chandler than it does Bill. It might mean that Gene was either insincere in his request for unity–and I am on the record both commending him and taking him at his word for that stance–or it demonstrates his inability to control even those who would have chosen him as their House Speaker.

Blind Spot

The saving of New Hampshire Taxpayer dollars has already begun. Peter Bragdon announced that his State Senate chief of staff will not be earning the $100,000.00 his predecessor is said to have received.

Not An Orignal Thought Between Them

The progressives are looking for a name for Kathy Sullivan’s 501(4)c secret-donor non-profit.  Well how about "Amercian Bridge?" 

Why name it that?  Because it would fit nicely with a national group ‘American Bridge" set up by David Brock, a prominent democrat political operative, who runs an array of groups under the left wing "Media Matters," a non-profit that does not need to disclose it’s donors either–and from whom he will tap resources to fund his new group meant to do battle with similar groups on the right.

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Some Advice From Across The Pond

Want to better understand the relationship between public and private sector jobs, tax production and consumption, without sitting through a boring three hour lecture?  Here it is an just under six minutes from our friends in England.   Now, go explain it to your progressive friends, the ones who have been supporting all those high-paying … Read more

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part I

My children have been raised on Harry Potter. So it is a foregone conclusion that we were going to see it though to the end. And it is not disappointing.
While I cannot comment on how well the movie hews to the book (so far)–we read it so long ago it seems–my oldest son claims they changed a few things, though nothing terribly important seems to have been lost.

Nothing Fair About It

Every now and people who appear rational find themselves repeating nonsense, usually in the Nashua Telegraph which is one of New Hampshire leading sources for editorial nonsense.  This time around it’s a guest commentary from Robert Collinsworth, who has an internet footprint large enough to identify him as an otherwise sensible guy.  So why has he taken to the editorial pages to sell the left wing meme that there is a gender/wage gap?

I only bring it up because his reasoning is right out of the liberal weenie play book.  Women only make 0.78/$1.00 compared to men.  He then asks why Republicans in the US senate are blocking the liberal legislation being sold as a fix, as if we can and should trust this unexplored talking point.

Rather than try explore any one persons motivations or sanity, we should probably just look deeper into the issue, and a Bill that looks like it creates more problems than it solves.  (Links and resources on the jump.) 

Like most liberal shibboleths Paycheck Fairness is based on incomplete analysis to pander to a bloc of voters the democrats have identified as worthy of their endless grievance mongering.  To repeat their talking points is, as far as I can tell, not worthy of Mr. Collinsworth or anyone else.

This is not an issue that can be evaluated strictly on the price paid for an hour of labor averaged across the full spectrum of work and wages.  To do so ignores every other factor in life, the free market, and the real danger that the legislative solution being proposed creates.

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